What is Mindfulness

What is Mindfulness?

The capacity to be mindful is already an innate characteristic of being human. Through these practices this capacity is brought to the forefront and strengthened. Learning how to cultivate an observant, compassionate, accepting stance towards your emotions, thoughts, body sensations and impulses reduces stress and enhances one's sense of well being. Participants in my courses build the capacity to be awake, alert and attentive to each moment and to improve their relationship to whatever arises.

Definitions of Mindfulness:

"Mindfulness is … a direct, intuitive knowing of what you are doing while you are doing it. Most of the time, our attention is hijacked by our thoughts and emotions, by our concerns, by our worries for the future, and our regrets and memories of the past. Mindful awareness is about learning to pay attention, in the present moment, and without judgment. It's like training a muscle - training our attention to be where we want it to be…allowing us to us choose how we respond & react." (Professor Mark Williams Oxford University, mindfulnet.org)

“The term mindfulness refers to a quality of awareness that includes the ability to pay attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non- judgmentally.” (Kabat-Zinn)

Being mindful simply means having good control over your attention: you can place your attention wherever you want and it stays there; when you want to shift it to something else, you can…….When your attention is steady, so is your mind: not rattled or hijacked by whatever pops into awareness, but stably present, grounded, and unshakeable…..( Rick Hanson with Richard Mendius, Buddha’s Brain )

Through experience you are invited to develop your own understanding and invent your own definition.